Zeist, The Netherlands – June 5th, 2018 – Startpage.com is proud to announce that Phil Zimmermann has joined the company to spearhead its product innovation and crypto-development.

“It is an honor to have Phil Zimmermann, an encryption legend, work with us,” said Startpage.com CEO Robert Beens. “Not only is he one of the brightest minds in security and cryptography today. He truly cares about human rights and privacy.”

Zimmermann is best known as the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), encryption software he designed in the 1990’s to fight government surveillance. PGP scrambles data, making it unreadable without the right credentials or “key”.

Beens said Zimmermann will advise the company on its current search engine product, but his main focus will be development of the company’s next-generation PGP-encrypted email service.

“I decided to join Startpage.com because they are ideologically aligned on privacy issues. They really care. And they make products everyone can use,” Zimmermann said. “A few years back I stopped using PGP on Apple Mail because it was never compatible with current MacOS versions. Creating a web-based PGP-compatible product that I can use on my laptop and mobile devices solves that problem.”

Startpage.com is the world's first and most trusted private search engine. Startpage.com is based in Europe, outside the reach of US data collection mandates and never tracks or logs user personal information.

Max Schrems, Austrian privacy activist, today announced the start of a crowdfunding effort for a new non-profit organization NOYBwith press conferences in Vienna and Brussels on November 28, 2017. StartPage.com will support the organization with Euro 20.000 and will raise awareness within their community.

Max Schrems, Austrian privacy activist, today announced the start of a crowdfunding effort for a new non-profit organization NOYB with press conferences in Vienna and Brussels on November 28, 2017. StartPage.com will support the organization with Euro 20.000 and will raise awareness within their community.

The project, including crowdfunding, will be presented at press conferences. Christiaan Solcer, StartPage's Marketing and Communications Manager, will attend the event in Brussels which is scheduled for 5:30 PM at the Renaissance Brussels Hotel next to the European Parliament. The crowdfunding will start at the same time. Companies, organizations, and individuals can show their support for digital rights, privacy and the protection of data by providing financial support.

Robert Beens, CEO of StartPage.com, considers the new NGO an important strategic partner against the relatively low-key approach to data protection laws we see in Europe:

"EU privacy laws need to be enforced. NOYB will be able to do this. They have an impressive track record, and seem ideally positioned to fight for our digital rights. European Privacy Search engine StartPage.com fully supports NOYB. They will to be a privacy force to be reckoned with!"

Partnership for Better Privacy

NOYB will focus on consumer rights and offer expert knowledge in cooperation with other organizations. It aims to improve privacy and legal certainty to prevent abuse during data confidentiality procedures. NOYB will also offer its expertise in legal disputes against companies that put more emphasis on profit maximization than data protection.

Government monitoring will not be the focus of NOYB, as there are already numerous organizations that aim to improve the privacy of citizens, and surveillance laws are generally regulated on a national level. Consumer protection from a privacy perspective is currently an afterthought and urgently needs to be strengthened throughout the EU.

As a professional, strategic and determined organization, NOYB is the perfect partner for privacy services such as StartPage.com. Created more than ten years ago, the privacy search engine has been setting new standards for online privacy and has been working tirelessly to develop new, user-friendly technologies to improve peoples’ privacy on the internet.

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Startpage.comhttps://www.startpage.comtag:startpage.pr.co,2005:PressRelease/1593532017-09-26T19:05:27+02:002017-09-26T19:05:27+02:00New International Open Letter Warns US Lawmakers over Net Neutrality Rollback

A growing network of international businesses and organizations are warning the US Federal Communications Commission that a rollback of Title II net neutrality rules could create “significant social and economic harms," with StartPage.com CEO Robert Beens weighing in and spearheading the effort.

New International Open Letter Warns US Lawmakers over Net Neutrality Rollback

A growing network of international businesses and organizations are warning the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that a rollback of Title II net neutrality rules could create “significant social and economic harms.” Earlier this year, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced plans to roll back these rules that currently require US Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to treat all Internet traffic equally — even traffic that originates from overseas.

Over 200 have already signed onto the letter and additional signatures are being added on a rolling basis.

While Pai has seemingly ignored overwhelming support for Title II in the over 20 million net neutrality comments filed by his country’s own citizens, it hasn’t deterred StartPage.com CEO Robert Beens from weighing in.

“The Internet is a shared world marketplace and forum that calls for international cooperation and diplomacy,” said Beens. “The US should solicit input from all parties that could be affected. It’s simply the right thing to do, and we hope that Chairman Pai will give our concerns serious consideration.”

If the US repeals net neutrality rules, signatories warn in the letter, it could harm or destroy global businesses and organizations by allowing US ISPs to decide what their US customers can see and do online while using their services, even discriminating against international traffic. ISPs would have the power to block sites and apps, and even force websites to pay expensive “prioritization” fees just to reach customers. Of course, this would have serious implications for freedom of information.

The group has released its letter to Pai and the US Congress in time for the September 26 FCC open meeting. It is available online at theworldfornetneutrality.com.

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Startpage.comhttps://www.startpage.comtag:startpage.pr.co,2005:PressRelease/1592622017-09-22T19:06:04+02:002017-09-22T19:06:04+02:00New International Open Letter Warns US over Net Neutrality Rollback (duplicate)

International open letter warns the US: Rolling back net neutrality rules could create “significant social and economic harms.”

New International Open Letter Warns US over Net Neutrality Rollback

A growing network of international businesses and organizations are warning the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that a rollback of Title II net neutrality rules could create “significant social and economic harms.” Earlier this year, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced plans to roll back these rules that currently require US Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to treat all Internet traffic equally — even traffic that originates from overseas.

While Pai has seemingly ignored over 20 million pro-net neutrality comments filed by his country’s own citizens, it hasn’t deterred StartPage.com CEO Robert Beens from weighing in.

“The Internet is a shared world marketplace and forum that calls for international cooperation and diplomacy,” said Beens. “The US should solicit input from all parties that could be affected. It’s simply the right thing to do, and we hope that Chairman Pai will give our concerns serious consideration.”

If the US repeals net neutrality rules, signatories warn in the letter, it could harm or destroy global businesses and organizations by allowing US ISPs to decide what their US customers can see and do online while using their services, even discriminating against international traffic. ISPs would have the power to block sites and apps, and even force websites to pay expensive “prioritization” fees just to reach customers.